Iran and Central Asia, c. 1500-1850

The Safavids and Their Successors

The Safavids were descended from a family of Turkmen Sufi sheikhs from Ardabil, in Azerbaijan. The sheikhs evolved a strong Shia Muslim religious practice and new political ambitions in the course of the 15th century. Under Shah Ismail I (1501-1524), they succeeded in taking over the remnants of Turkmen and Timurid holdings in Iran. Ismail’s belief in his God-given invincibility was not shattered until the Safavids suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Ottomans – who used modern artillery and firearms – in the battle of Chaldiran in 1514. The Safavids’ capital of Tabriz was plundered and because of the continuing threat from the Ottomans, the capital was moved to Qazvin under Shah Tahmasp and finally to Isfahan under Shah Abbas I (1587-1629).

The Safavid Empire reached a political and cultural culmination under Shah Abbas I. The Ottomans were repulsed and economic links with Mughal India were supplemented with new contacts to European powers. These contacts contributed decisively to the realm’s prosperity far into the 18th century and brought with them fruitful cultural influences from both east and west. An entire city quarter was built up in Isfahan around a monumental plaza with great buildings covered with tiles, and the city evolved into an international commercial center. The court actively supported the arts and built workshops to produce rugs and silk textiles of unprecedented quality. The Safavids were also great bibliophiles, and miniature painting flourished, due increasingly to demand from the well-to-do middle class. Ceramics were mass manufactured in forms and with decorations that were influenced by Chinese porcelain.

In the course of the 18th century, Iran experienced growing pressure from the expanding European powers, including Russia, and the influence of European culture also became increasingly dominant. For a short period, the Afsharids (1736-1796) and the Zand dynasty (1751-1794) ruled in a fragmented Iran on behalf of the politically impotent Safavid shahs. The Qajars (1779-1925) were the ones who united the realm again under a single family, which ruled from the new capital of Tehran.

Timurid territories in Central Asia were never conquered by the Safavids. Descendants of the Mongols, the Uzbeks, had settled there and founded a number of Sunni Muslim khanates (empires) beginning in around 1500. Although the Uzbek khanates often made alliances with the Ottomans against Shiite Iran, art in Bukhara and Samarkand in the 17th and 18th century was highly influenced by that of the Safavids.

After the abdication of Shah Sultan Husayn the Safawid dynasty limped on for nearly thirty more years. Husayn’s son Tahmasp II acceded to the throne, but was hardly more than a puppet under the control of the military commander Nadir Quli Beg Afshar in 1144 H (1732 AD). Nadir Shah exposed Tahmasp as a drunkard, and dethroned him.

Realizing, however, that popular sympathy for the Safawids dictated that a member of the family must hold the throne, he nominated Tahmasp’s eight-month-old son, ‘Abbas III.

Four years later Nadir Shah deposed ‘Abbas, and seized the throne for himself as Nadir Shah Afshar. ‘Abbas, Tahmasp and another of Tahmasp’s sons, Isma‘il, were all executed in 1153 (1740). Nadir Shah, too, was deposed and executed in 1160 (1747), and all the princes in his family, except for his grandson Shah Rukh were put to death.

Still convinced that a Safawid ruler was indispensable, even if he was no more than a figurehead, the leader of the Bakhtiyari Kurds, ‘Ali Mardan Khan, found Abu Turab.

This seventeen-year-old prince was the son of Sayyid Murtaza, whose mother was a daughter of Shah Sultan Husayn. In 1163 (1750) Abu Turab acceded to the throne as Isma’il III, which linked him to the founder of the Safawid state. In the event he proved to be another failure, for he was no more than a puppet in the hands of ‘Ali Mardan Khan. At the battle of Chahar Mahall in 1165 (1752) between the Safawids and Karim Khan Zand, Isma‘il saw that ‘Ali Mardan was about to be defeated, and deserted to the side of Karim Khan. In a later conflict between Karim Khan and the Qajar leader Muhammad Hasan Khan Isma ‘il again changed sides because he thought the Qajars were the stronger party. Unfortunately for Isma‘il he was wrong.

The Qajars were defeated and Isma‘il was handed over to Karim Khan who deposed him in 1169 (1756), and banished him to a fortress between Shiraz and Isfahan where he spent the rest of his life. After Isma‘il’s death in 1187 (1773) the concept of the Safawid monarchy ceased to exist. The only trace left by this ruler is his handsome coinage, most of which was stuck in north central Iran.